Thursday, June 07, 2007

Riding the Orphan Train Once Again

I had the most incredible day yesterday. First off, for improving my mood, was the glorious sunshine. Add to that a fabulous friend, a trip to an interesting museum to see what turned out to be great tribal art, and a delicious Italian antipasti salad for lunch. As if it couldn't get any better, Will showed me some works in progress, a couple of her older quilts, and we talked, talked, talked fabric and quilts. Ah, perfection. I did take loads of photos from the museum, but you're going to have to wait for that post because I did some sewing today for the first time since arriving here.

I pulled the Orphan Train blocks back out and got to work. You can see what this work in progress looked like when I left off in August 2005 here. I arranged the blocks without matching how I had them previously. I moved that long area with the purple and black from out of the right middle and up into the left corner. That way the Trip Around the World fragments lead down into the main body of the quilt.

I added my log cabin blocks. (Begun for a bed quilt way back in June 2005. I like the blocks, but they weren't quite what I was after. I'll start with a smaller center AND have the logs finish 1/2" instead of 3/4" when I try again.) I zigzagged the blocks up in the right corner.

I'm an idiot and deleted the pics of how this quilt looked at the beginning of the day. Anyway, this is after a bunch of piecing:

I love how it looks, but it's top heavy, isn't it. Does adding a row of log cabins along the bottom like this help? I think so, but how does it look from there? If you notice anything horrible, tell me now before I sew it together. (And hopefully I won't have already done it, like Joyce and Bonnie always manage to to do before I've had a chance to respond.)

I'm happy with my progress. Not so happy about my allergies freaking out on me. Of course the cats made the day interesting. Pokey decided that one of the blocks had to die, wrapped her front legs around it and just starting digging at it with her hind claws. I obviously thought it more endearing than endangering since my first instinct was to grab the camera.

Play, play, play:

At least Howler just slept on it:

Pokey wore herself out and retired to the blocks on top of the cutting table:

Cute as all heck, but so in the way. I picked her up and moved her three times from that spot. Of course her new one was the sewing chair...

I was a brave girl today and made appointments with an endrocrinologist and a dentist. Or at least a dental hygienist with a "visit" from the dentist. Hmm okay. I HATE making phone calls even in the States where I know the language, so this was an accomplishment. Holly, you understand, right?

It's time to make dinner, so I gotta run. Ya'all take care.

p.s. sorry about those entries reposting yesterday. Thought I was doing it properly so that wouldn't happen, but I guess not.

18 comments:

Oh, it's fabulous! I love the colors and the combination of very precise and very free piecing. The forks with personality (or whatever they are) in the middle are just too cool. They look ready to dive into the most amazing, psychedelic pasta ever. ;)

I agree you need a little weight on the bottom, and the mountains are good. If you have any smaller blocks like that, you could play around with a horizontal zig zag across the bottom. It would be too much to do it with those big blocks.

About the reposting. I noticed that blogger was spitting out a few as new in my feeds. Not sure why, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When posting a label to ten posts, four were reposted. Confusing.

I've been thinking about my orphan blocks alot lately. Putting together an orphan quilt might be just the thing. My orpham blocks are all over the map but it would be nice to get those uncompleted projects off my conscious.

Orphan train is looking splendid, Tonya. I do think it's better balanced with some of the log cabins at the bottom, but know you, you'll probably come up with several more good ideas before you're finished!

I think it's so cool that your orphans are all in the same color family and blend so well together. I have a lot of orphans that either don't relate or are fabrics I hated to begin with. But someday I hope the pile is big enough to pull some of them together harmoniously. thanks for sharing this beauty!

I'm with the others: add the log cabins on the bottom. More is always better ;-) And I'm TOTALLY with you on making phone calls in a language that's not your mother tongue. I can manage in person where I can talk with my hands, but I procrastinate when it comes to making phone calls and then practice what I'm going to say (and cross my fingers the party on the other end of the line follows the "script!), writing is the worst though. I can't hide my bad grammar and limited vocabulary when I write.

I like the Log Cabin blocks at the bottom too. I also like quilt pixie's idea to turn what is now the bottom half of the quilt around so what you show as the top becomes the bottom. If I did that I might leave off the extra row of Log Cabins though... Is it too late to take those zig-zag Log Cabins apart and spread them out along that end of the quilt (like you have the row at the bottom)? Or maybe that would be too much symmetry for you?

Geez, good luck with the doctors. I avoid them in English, much less French!!

that looks so wonderful Tonya! I just love your colours. I really need to get some black so use with my leftover fabrics from recent projects. Orphan block quilts always look so wonderful to me. Congrats on making the phone calls in french - that's a huge feat!

It looks wonderful and I also like the dark log cabins at the bottom. I never got brave enough to use the phone in France. Once I was trying (in person) to get linseed oil to oil a new easel. Try saying "huile" so a French person can understand and if it were for a car maybe I could have explained but for an easel? Well, that was some experience and I came home with no oil.

I don't understand how you can make so many gorgeous things and never a dud amongst them. This is absolutely fantastic! And when did you start making it? I wish I had your color sense and design sense too. Just beautiful.

Catching up.. wow, you've been busy! I love how your orphan train is coming along. Beautiful any way you put it together. And yes, I do know what you mean about making phone calls! But good for you for getting those appointments made.

About Me

I live in Florida with my seven cats and my husband. I've been a quilter since 1987 and consider my style liberated and non-traditional traditional (think Gwen Marston, Gee's Bend, and string quilts) and I watch way too much tv while sewing and hand-quilting.